


in order to return to (this world you have to leave behind) what is most important to you

by bemse



Series: WRW 2019 [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: A quickie, Your Name inspired AU, presumably before v1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-27 22:44:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19799284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bemse/pseuds/bemse
Summary: It’s not in Ruby’s handwriting. The penmanship is delicate yet firm. A steady hand held the tool to craft such ambiguous note. Was the girl going crazy? She turns the page to a blank and finds no other sign of a trick. She returns to the previous page.Who are you?





	in order to return to (this world you have to leave behind) what is most important to you

**Author's Note:**

> This is for WRW 2019 day 2 prompt: Role Reversal/Body Switch

Some mornings, i wake up crying without knowing why. That sort of thing happens now and again. 

Whatever the dream was i had, 

i can never remember it. But… 

the only thing that does last when i wake up… is a sense of loss... which lingers for a long time afterwards. 

I’m always searching for something 

or someone. 

“Good morning!” Ruby takes her seat at the table across from her sister, Yang. Their father, Taiyang, just prepared the day’s breakfast.

“Morning.” He greets.

“For speed as your semblance, you sure are a slowpoke.” Both girls are dressed for school. However Ruby’s hair is a mess, like a mop on her head. She also lacks her hood, but that’s due to the morning race she faces after Yang’s morning routine. 

“It’s not my fault someone used up all the hot water.” She playfully sticks her tongue out. Yang does so back before taking a bite of her breakfast. “Oooh yess. Chocolate chip pancakes!” The younger girl eagerly squeals, immediately stacks her jacks on her plate. The scaping of the knife and fork sound sweetly doing so. 

Her other family members still quiet, especially her father. He’s watching Ruby like prey in the wild. Observing her mousy movements and slight mumbles to herself. “Well, you’re back to normal today.” Her father finally comments as Ruby finishes her stack.

She looks at him like his words are a prank. Her silver eyes tell him otherwise. “Whatcha talking about?” Ruby knows her family teases her. They love her so it’s innocent.

Yang scoffs. “Dude, you were all crazy yesterday.” There’s that familiar tease. “Like you were lost or something…” Which turns into concern in a flash. There’s something they’re not telling her.

“Wha--I feel fine.” She brushes it off. Her pancakes are her comfort.

As the young girl digs in her meal, Yang and her father share a look unnoticed to Ruby. Maybe she is indeed fine after all. Or maybe there’s something she’s not telling them. 

\----

Before the sisters leave for the academy, Ruby grabs her red hooded-cloak, completing her outfit to perfection. She also cleans up her bedhead--nothing too fancy, just a brush over on a few sections of her hair sticking out. 

Patch is a small island just off the coast of Western Vale. The busiest part of the island surrounds Signal Academy. Here, families are raised and small businesses are run to a certain extent. Lush forests cover vast of the land. And the place is quiet. Nature taking an absolute amount of the island.

The girls reach town square. Signal is merely a mile away. Here you have your markets and your more secured park areas. Not much to do here honestly. 

The blonde splits from her sister, wishing her luck with school as she meets up with her friends. Ruby docilely waves as she carries on.

“Ruby!” A young girl’s voice calls. Before she could even react, Penny body slams Ruby into a bone crushing hug. 

“Penny… air…” She grunts and gasps weakly. 

“Whoops, sorry.” The orange haired girl apologizes, immediately releasing her death-grip, letting her friend breath enough air for the rest of the morning. 

Ruby takes a few heaving breaths until she can feel her lungs again, as well as most of her ribcage. A large shadow covers her bent posture.

“Hey Ruby.”

“Hey Jaune.” She straightens up to even attempt to look at the boy in front of her.

The trio continue their walk to school. It’s all a routine for them. Until Jaune said something that threw Ruby out of the rut dug deep into her mind.

“So was your dad able to exorcise you last night?” They slowed down their pace. He’s kidding right? 

“Wait, what?” She looks at her male friend like he was the one who had a second head on his shoulders.

“You were acting strange yesterday, Ruby.” Penny agreed with Jaune, somewhat. But maybe not to the degree of a demon possessing her body.

“I was?”

First her family, now her friends. She was absolutely lost. Maybe whatever happened yesterday stayed between those close to her.

\----

Class starts and Ms. Goodwitch has been lecturing for the past thirty minutes or so about nature and the environment. All probably good things to learn but Ruby thinks otherwise. Her eyes land on Jaune who sits in the front of the room, diligently paying attention and even commenting to Goodwitch. Penny’s not to far from Ruby. She’s focused and taking notes written on the board. 

She decides it’s time to start doodling. Flipping through her notebook, she finds an odd message:

Who are you?

It’s not in Ruby’s handwriting. The penmanship is delicate yet firm. A steady hand held the tool to craft such ambiguous note. Was the girl going crazy? She turns the page to a blank and finds no other sign of a trick. She returns to the previous page.

Who are you?

And then back further to possibly class notes or other smudgy drawings. Those look normal. They look like something Ruby created. 

“Miss Rose?” Ms. Goodwitch’s voice snatched Ruby’s attention back to the classroom.

She stands up, a little bit startled, very spazzed. “Yes.” The teacher has a hand resting on her hip. Her usual pose, which is tense and casual simultaneously. A scattering of peers have their eyes on the dark haired girl, like she’s going to say something else. If it was an answer to a question, the girl visibly gulped.

“Glad to see you remember your own name today.” Ms. Goodwitch said with a slight smile. Almost half the class reacted with a chuckle. 

Some inside joke Ruby clearly wasn’t part of. And her head is cocked in confusion in response. 

\----

Lunchtime couldn’t come faster enough. And luckily for the girl, it didn’t. She couldn’t wait to hear what her friends have to say.

“You…don’t remember?” Penny asked. Ruby practically dragged her two friends to their usual dining spot in the courtyard to find some answers. She was embarrassed and confused to everyone’s reactions around her. Ruby had a right to know.

“Nope.” She began eating her lunch her dad packed for her.

“Believe it or not, you forgot how to use Crescent Rose yesterday.” Penny recalls the previous day’s events, “Plus you couldn’t activate your own semblance during combat training. And you forgot your cloak at home.”

Her lips suddenly part from the straw of her juicebox. “What? No way!” Ruby didn’t want to picture this nightmare her friend was talking about. Crescent Rose is practically her baby. She knows every scratch, crack, and edge. So the thought of her not being able to operate her very own pride and joy was an arrow to the heart. 

Her semblance was another story. Leaving rose petals in a burst of her speed marks her and honing her ability took months of training. She’s able to move faster than the naked eye could see which helps her tremendously in battle. 

Lastly, there’s her red hooded-cloak. Ruby feels vulnerable and naked without it. Her cloak reminds her of Summer, and that thought alone hurts the most. She’s rarely seen without and apparently that rarity happened yesterday.

“Yeah, it was like you had amnesia or something.” Jaune chimes in. He looks up from his comic books, eavesdropping even though he didn’t need to.

“Hmmm.” Ruby sips more of her juicebox, contemplating what Penny and Jaune have told her. “Now that you mention it… I have been having weird dreams lately… Like dreams of someone else’s life.” 

Like any dream, those memories are hazy and lack any additional context. She just knows the bits and pieces of those dreams and they never carry on in the morning. They fade and Ruby thinks nothing of it. It’s not like her dreams are effecting reality and don’t hold tire consequences.

* * *

Airships aren’t an uncommon occurrence around Vale, especially in Patch, airships have to take locals to the main kingdom somehow. 

But this particular airship was loud. Almost like it was right above her, touching the tip of her nose. Another one flies by, causing the same ear shattering effect and disrupting a certain girl’s sleep. 

Even if the bed was unusually soft and warm. She hastily crawled out, hoping to barely reach the wood floor. But her fingertips didn’t feel the hardness. A gently corse rug was in its place. 

It was too late. 

The rest of her body and the bedsheets crashed on the carpet with her. Thankfully landing on her back with no serious injuries. Although it was painful, and she would definitely be sore at breakfast, a secondary surface was felt. It was a hard surface alright, but it was tile. 

She was settled on a rug between the bed, which was much taller than she remembered, and the rest of the room’s floor appeared to be possibly stone. There was only one way to figure out.

The girl tugs the sheets off her face and instantly feels a chill in the room. This place is… nice. Way nicer than her home in Patch. And… cleaner, too. The room is well decorated. It’s big--maybe twice the size of her room. But it doesn’t feel like a bedroom. If that makes any sense.

Her lips slightly part open. “Where..?” Comes out. But before she could finish, the voice sounds unfamiliar. It came out of her mouth but not _her_ mouth. 

A stern knock makes her jump in her position. It’s coming from the double door leading into the room. Oh, sweet, a double door room.

“Um… who is it?” Her voice calls out. She’s not used to it yet, but it’s not displeasing to her ears. 

“Miss Schnee, it’s Klein.” A gruff voice speaks from the other side. It’s clear and doesn’t sound threatening. “Your father is upset that you were absent from breakfast and left for headquarters. I’ve come to check if you were all right.” Well that’s certainly nice of… Klein. There’s a slight concern in his voice with the mention of this father.

And did this man say Schnee?

“Uhhh… yes, I’m fine. Thank you, uh, Klein.” Stutters out of her. She hopes that’s an enough answer for this guy. And it is, because footsteps fade from the other side of door fade.

“What a strange dream.” She sighs and carefully gets up.

She could hear another distant rumble of airships overhead. Her feet move at a snail’s pace to the massive window opposite the door. Three airships fly across the early morning sky. Her hands could practically touch them if it wasn’t for this window. 

Her head tilts down from the sky to the land below. Grasping at what she’s seeing, the city below is right below where she was. But it’s miles and miles away. A dangerous drop from what she’s seeing. This room… or place was near the edge… as if she was among the clouds--the edge of heaven itself.

“Whoa…” She suddenly realizes. Eyes going wide and everything. “I’m in Atlas!”


End file.
